Democrats Have Needed Someone Like Tim Walz for Decades Aug. 7, 2024 Abbie Parr/Associated Press By Sarah Smarsh Ms. Smarsh is a journalist and the author of the forthcoming book “Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class.” Sometimes on our farm a nice car would roll up the gravel driveway and a man in a slick suit would get out. He would either be trying to sell us something overpriced that we’d never buy, because of our limited means and common sense, or trying to buy something we’d never sell — namely land, about which my grandfather said, “You don’t get rid of it, because they don’t make any more of it.” This man would shake our hands before driving off. “Better count your fingers,” Grandpa Arnie would tell us and laugh. I’ve shared the story before to explain the gulf I’ve long felt between the essence of the rural white working poor who raised me — honest, flawed people who would welcome just about anyone into our home but a liar — and the red-hatted-fool avatar they’ve been assigned in national discourse. What a relief, then, to see emerge on the national stage the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who embodies the earnest, humane, rural people who shaped me and the prairie populism that shaped the progressive foundations of the Great Plains. Mr. Walz went to a state college, taught public high school and went into government — more than a couple of class rungs above my grandfather, who in the 1940s left school after sixth grade to work the Kansas wheat fields with his German American dad. But when Mr. Walz smiles and his eyes disappear into a good-natured squint — say, while holding a piglet like a baby at a state fair — I see Grandpa Arnie. Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. With due respect to political statistics, which convey real and important trends, the rural white working class is not a monolith. Among them remains a large and consequential minority of sensible people who even in their vulnerable economic state remain unmoved by charlatans blaming immigrants while amassing corporate wealth. In recent decades, the Democratic Party has made little direct appeal to them, such that Mr. Walz’s rural background seems downright transgressive on the top ticket. As evidence, some (often coastal) pundits now struggle to find a word for a vice-presidential pick raised in small-town Nebraska beyond “folksy,” since their language about his place of origin has for so long reflected geographic and class biases. “Trump country.” “One of the square states in the middle.” My grandfather died while I was a first-generation college student, but my grandma — a Bernie Sanders supporter who went on to vote for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden — has commented more than once about how Donald Trump would’ve turned Grandpa Arnie’s stomach. Imagine if the type of person you most loathe became the symbol for your people and place. It has been, for me and so many others, excruciating. I winced when political spin and coastal media coverage made cruel words that my people would never speak and big trucks that they could never afford the dominant image of rural, working-class and poor whites. Meanwhile, as a journalist with a national platform who resides in rural Kansas, I repeatedly declined invitations to explain the Trump movement. I sensed the problematic ratings-driven fixation of television news networks, and my own family contains no more Trump voters than those of my friends who live in New York City and Los Angeles. Over the years, I did my best to offer another vision through my writing. Along the way, I occasionally engaged with the Democratic Party about rural issues in unpaid and unofficial ways. I offered guidance to a U.S. senator on rural policy, sat on a panel about rural issues for the House Democrats’ annual conference and was strongly urged to run for the U.S. Senate myself in 2018 after the publication of my memoir about my rural, working-poor upbringing in the heartland. I cannot say I left these experiences hopeful that the Democratic establishment would ever wake up and endeavor to speak to my demographic or even region. By selecting as her running mate Mr. Walz — who as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives rightly criticized the party for its coastal bias in naming the caucus’s leadership — Vice President Kamala Harris has changed the course of her party and perhaps our country. At her side, a son of Midwestern farm country can confidently and authentically speak the truths that neither Mr. Trump nor his running mate, JD Vance, will tell you: That for all the loud racism, homophobia and jingoism of today’s Republican Party — which indeed has dominated elections outside metropolitan areas — the real rural America is diverse, full of immigrants, people of color, gay and transgender people and native peoples, and even straight white folks who happily work and live alongside them. That reproductive rights, legal marijuana, public schools, paid medical and family leave, and background checks for gun purchases are supported by many voters across party lines, even in rural places that appear monochrome red on political maps. That farmers, ranchers and land stewards have a critical stake in addressing climate change, even if they don’t use the same language as environmental activists. That people in small towns are often hopeful, cooperative folks who find creative solutions to local problems and are ruled by a sense of responsibility to community rather than by a fear of those outside it. In conveying the dignity and reality of what is casually derided on the coasts as “flyover country,” Mr. Walz speaks plainly yet eloquently in the parlance of my place and thereby fills a decades-long geographic messaging gap for Democrats. He is also, clearly, a likable guy. What a delight to see a man who exemplifies my home at Ms. Harris’s side. What an absolute balm for my country heart. Having watched the thrilling and joyous Philadelphia rally at which Mr. Walz spoke for the first time as Ms. Harris’s running mate, I didn’t hear either candidate use the terms “working class” or “poverty”; “middle class,” the term beloved by Democratic politicians, seemed inaccurate and a missed opportunity in describing Mr. Walz’s background involving a town of fewer than 300 people, farm work, military enlistment and college via the G.I. Bill. But “rural” — yes, they claimed it, and it was not hollow as on other political stages. When news broke that Ms. Harris had picked Mr. Walz, my husband came inside covered in dirt from working on the tractor all morning. He saw a picture on my laptop of Mr. Walz in short sleeves. “Look at the color of his skin,” he observed. “It’s dark from being out in the sun.” Indeed there is a shade and texture to the forearms of my class that perhaps not even decades in elected office can undo. We both nodded approvingly. I think Grandpa would have nodded, too. Sarah Smarsh is a journalist and the author of the forthcoming book “Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class” and “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.”
Vance 是名校毕业， 是不是精英另说， 但他出身是贫下中农吧。
极少数爬入精英的底层出身
普通人上不去，从来不会。
一个本科录取Fordham，一个osu
<p>1970: University of Pennsylvania: 70% Acceptance Rate
我看hillbilly 的时候一直有个问题。如果Vance 不是大白男，是个小黄人儿。他在美国能不能有这样的逆袭人生。
撒谎，无赖，流氓，不顾一切往上爬， 就是精英？
他的逆袭是thiel看中了他的hillbilly背景，把他当作一个项目来培养
小黄人儿能通过参军上Yale law school, 更重要的是还会被那些大律所看上吗？thiel 会看上小黄人儿吗？
我现在觉得Peter Thiel非常邪恶。
不止是名校, 这两个人都在金融业, 不是普通人.
Kamala事业不普通,但是出身是很普通的, 父母是普通老实中产移民, 和vance老婆家差不多, 家里没有背景. Kamala学历也非常一般.哪里都有的那种.
那也是个Vance嘴里的childless cat lady
当然不可能了，他本人就是美国‘白人至上’主义的代表，只要是白男，就有minority的家境好的女的和你在一起，事业也会发达。
右派的变态 不过说实话 硅谷这些有钱人 不论左倾还是右倾 都是变态
我很好奇的就是不管哪边都说有邪恶的背后黑手, 这里说是 Peter Thiel, 以前还有人说索罗斯是黑手 这些黑手为什么这么不小心 这么容易被人看见?
是的，只要是白的自动高人一等，藤校的白女看不上他，他老婆还有虎妈这样的高出生有色女性排队送温暖
Peter Thiel 招募年轻白男给他输血，他相信这样可以青春永驻 他还投了好几个biotech companies 专门给他研制长生不老 药
美国政治是所谓的精英治国， 几亿人， 选几百个众议员， 100 个参议员， 一个总统， 这些所谓的精英们都干了些什么呢？
人人有医保了吗？ 天天枪击结束了吗？边境非法移民减少了吗？ 满地流浪汉减少了吗？ 到处煽风点火停止了吗？
同感.. 是不是德国纳粹分子的后代？
人家爹只是死了，不是每个中产移民都能去stanford做到title professor
四个人里面对Walz最能relate to. 最厌恶Vance。假的恶心。
TRUE。
我只希望能有一个对美国华人damage尽可能小点的人上去。
你怎么知道这是为了爬上去呢? 也许是真的喜欢呢? 为什么willie brown 自己只做到了市长, 靠他爬上去的确做到了美国第一位女副总统? 你说她没本事, 只是靠一个local 的黑人政客爬到现在副总统位置和美国总统候选人? 能挖到的丑闻只有这个对于一个政客已经很难得了.
表演能力确实可以算得上表演届的精英。
Vance也是每个500强都有的那种大白男。业务拿不出手。都不需要长得好看，就是个子高。这样的人天生leader，啥好事儿都是他的，升的比谁都快。
不知道逆袭是到什么程度，纽约是经常有洗发店大妈的儿子考上mit哈佛这种，这算逆袭吗？
精英的是阶层不是个人能力. walz 的圈子都是平民, Vance 的有全世界最富有的几个人.
那是因为华人能推娃。即使上了哈佛，几个小黄人儿能被大律所，能被thiel 看上。
甚至连所谓soft skills communication skills都不怎样，整天傻不拉即说的都是蠢话还不自知，但自带光环只要不是自闭眼睛不看人会自然打招呼就算是leadership
拜登也是烂校
我一直觉得Peter thiel很邪恶。 在他还没出柜的时候有网络媒体报道他是gay，他花巨资背后支持别人诉讼，把这家媒体给搞破产了。 后来他结婚了，还有个小男模情人，那个男模情人后来自杀了。Peter绝对的PUA高手！
这人魔障了，各个楼里头贴这个图。以为我们是川粉呢，见到个tampon就要变性。
真的 它就是工作中各种白男的即视感
我现在也不喜欢他老婆了 感觉judgement很差 跟这种人生活一辈子难以想象
感觉walz 不介意自己的苦出身。Vance 是想利用自己的苦出身拼命挤进上流社会那股钻营凤凰劲儿。
嗯 看着就像我们很接地气 很快乐 很自洽的白人老头邻居
你忘了言论自犹了么？
什么精英草根都是骗韭菜的。
只有从Trump University毕业的才能算精英，其它大学毕业的都不能算精英。
他认为自己是， 看他那沐猴而冠自我陶醉的样子，你就别浇他冷水了。
英国也是
我也没有名校滤镜了
输血那个应该是另外一个硅谷billionaire。都邪恶极了。
Vance怎么能算精英，Kamala 也不普通。
Obama 出身平民但是是名校毕业, Kamala 是 Howard 大学一个90%+黑人的学校, 不是Havard 大学. Walz 是中西部州立还不是旗杆的分校. 学历上面是很普通的.
好奇你为什么用“小黄人” 这三个字？你的意思是亚裔吗？你这么自卑吗，小？黄？你有自嘲的自由，请不要在华人论坛把亚裔称为小黄人
深井冰。这么自卑敏感就别上网了。滚。
好恐怖